The Truth
by moon12345
Summary: "All my adult life, ever since Shannon broke up with me, ever since I started being awesome… everything I did and everything I said was a lie." Barney deals with his new way of life. Oneshot Barney\Robin


Hey, so this is just something I thought about after watching the show for the million's time. I don't own anything. Oh and English isn't my first language. Hope you'll like it (:

 **The Truth**

The lights were off when she entered the apartment. It was late though, so she wasn't surprised. She closed the door behind her and crossed the living room slowly, trying not to be too loud. Tossing her hand beg on the sofa, she finally reached the kitchen, deciding to drink some water before going to bed. But as she poured the water into the glass, she thought she could hear voices coming from the next room. Putting the glass down, she walked toward the bedroom, and slowly opened the door.

To her surprise, she saw a shadow figure sitting on the bed. It was dark, so she couldn't see his face, but she could hear his uneven breathing and knew right then that something wasn't right.

"Barney?" she whispered, and turned the lights on. His eyes closed reflexively, hiding from the light, but she could see two wet lines on his cheeks. "Have you been crying?"

Avoiding her eyes, he wiped his face and said, "pff, no." but it wasn't his usual cocky voice. She sighed and came closer, sitting next to him.

"Hey," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder in a way she hoped was comforting. She was never good at those kinds of things, especially not with him. "Come on, tell me what's wrong."

They were married for three months now, and she thought she had him all figured out, but moments like that, like seeing him cry in the middle of the night, made her wonder if she even knew him at all.

Barney mumbled something under his breath, still not looking at her.

"What was that?"

"What if the truth isn't good enough?"

He finally raised his gaze and his eyes met hers. The look she saw in them was tired, but she could also notice a slight glance of fear.

"What are you talking about?"

"You always say you hate it when I lie to you, and I vowed to always tell you the truth. But what if… what if the truth isn't good enough?"

"The truth is always better than lying, we talked about it already." She paused, suddenly scared of hearing what he had to say. "Barney, did something happen? What brought this on?"

Barney sighed and stood up on his feet. "It's just…" he started pacing in front of her. "All my adult life, ever since Shannon broke up with me, ever since I started being awesome… everything I did and everything I said was a lie. My job- I only pretended to be this confident successful businessman, so I could get revenge at this Greg guy- but that is all over now. My stories- I don't know if you know but most of the stories I ever told you in the bar, all the history stories about the invention of the Bro Code-they not actually 'true stories'. My womanizing ways- I couldn't stand the idea of falling in love to have my heart break all over again, so I lied to myself that I don't need it, that I can just turn into this cold hearted guy who can sleep with who ever he wants without getting hurt himself… as long as I had that, I could live with the things I did to those women on all of my one-night-stands. But now, I don't have that anymore… by marrying you I'm admitting I do believe in monogamy relationships, and admitting that is something I never thought I'd have to do. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love you and I love being married to you, but it's just that... what if… what if it's just not good enough?"

He got quiet after that, and stopped in front of the window, facing his back to her. She looked at him, her own eyes starting to tear, _is he saying what I think he's saying?_ She asked herself. _Is he regretting marring me? Is out marriage just another one of his lies?_

But then he said something that got her to realize that is the first time he truly was being honest with her.

"What if I'm not good enough?"

"What?!" she asked, surprised. "Barney, of course you're good enough! You're awesome, remember?"

"That's just the thing," he said and turned around to look at her. "I'm not. I'm not awesome anymore. I'm just me… and you don't even know me, the real me… what if now, that I can't lie anymore… what if you will realize that I'm not who you thought I was, and…" but he couldn't finish, and instead just looked at her with this hunted look in his eyes, another single tear sliding down his face.

It made her smile, because that Barney she just saw, the real Barney, who she knew so well and who she got married to, was finally there full time. She got up from the bed and approached him.

"Barney Stinson, listen to me," she said and took his hand in hers. "You are awesome. Yes, you lied a lot, and you made up a whole bunch of crap when you were trying to prove something to the world and to yourself. But that Barney, the awesome womanizing businessman with cold heart who couldn't feel anything, that's not who I fell in love with."

He looked at her doubtfully, so she squeezed his hand.

"You quit your job, but you made a good thing, helping get that man thrown into jail. And now you have an opportunity to do the things you really love, like magic, and inventing ideas and writing books."

She wiped another tear from his cheek with her thumb.

"Your stories about the Bro Code are not lies, they were your way of telling us the things that really mattered to you, without making it boring, like Ted's stories."

That made him smile a little, and her smile grew wider.

"And about your womanizing life style…well, if only, I'm just glad you're over that. And I can promise you that I will never let that warm heart of yours break ever again."

She tried to prove her point by kissing him, but it tasted bittersweet, mixed with emotions and the tears now pouring down his face freely. Barney broke the kiss, and whispered to her, "I don't know who I am anymore."

"You're Barney Stinson. You're a great guy, who's just going through a hard time right now. You're brave, and creative, and funny. You're a good friend. A good Bro. you care about the people you love, and you would do anything to make them happy. And you've always been this guy, you just kept him hidden under all the lies. But I always new he was there, and that guy made me fall in love with him. By making me laugh, cheering me up when I felt down. By helping me get a job. By marrying me and making me the happiest woman on earth. You're my husband. You're Barney Stinson. You're awes-"

He kissed her then, pulling her body closer to his. "You're the most awesome person I've ever met."

She smiled, resting her head on his shoulder, "well, second."


End file.
